Mexico says death toll from drug war is falling

By Michael O'Boyle

CUERNAVACA, Mexico (Reuters) - The death toll from Mexico's drug war has dropped by about 25 percent in the first three months of this year from the last quarter of 2008, Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora said on Thursday.

Medina Mora told reporters after meeting U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Attorney General Eric Holder in the city of Cuernavaca that drug violence killed 1,600 people from January to March.

The figure was still almost double the 850 deaths associated with drug trafficking reported in the first three months of 2008 but seemed to reflect a drop in killings in the violent border city of Ciudad Juarez since the army sent 5,000 troops there last month.

Drug killings in Mexico jumped last year to an unprecedented 6,300 despite an army crackdown ordered by President Felipe Calderon. Rival hitmen fighting for control of smuggling routes have murdered police and beheaded rivals.

Napolitano and Holder attended a meeting in Cuernavaca on arms smuggling and repeated a pledge by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week to toughen up U.S. border checks.

The Mexican government also announced the capture of a drug baron from Ciudad Juarez. Vicente Carrillo Leyva was seized while exercising in a park in an upscale residential district of Mexico City.

The drug war has blown into a huge challenge for Calderon and is starting to frighten away investors and worry foreign tourists whose dollars are increasingly needed as the economic crisis bites.

U.S. President Barack Obama will visit Mexico later this month, following a trip in March by Clinton, as Washington frets that spiralling drug violence could spill over the border.